Lady Falcons blanked

Donoho’s Constance Hodges (14) plays a ball in the air and blocks off West Morgan’s Helena Jaskowski at the same time.

By Al MuskewitzEast Alabama Sports Today

HUNTSVILLE — There haven’t been many teams Donoho has run up against this historical season the likes of what the Lady Falcons saw Thursday.

West Morgan scored three goals 11 minutes apart in the game’s first 16 minutes and never gave Donoho’s offense any chance to mount a threat, roaring past the Lady Falcons 5-0 in the Class 1A-3A girls soccer Final Four.

West Morgan smothered Donoho forward Lily Wiedmer, sometimes marking her with five or six defenders at midfield.

Mari Julia Delgado put away a deep cross from Helena Jankowski on the back post four and a half minutes into the game, then seventh-grader Brandy Hernandez added goals in the 14th minute and 16th minutes later.

Jankowski put West Morgan (20-6) ahead 4-0 with a shot from outside the box with 9:17 left in the first half. Maribel Delgado scored on a 30-yard free kick in the second half.

“I don’t know there’s another team that can hammer the ball the way they hammer it that can find that back post with that kind of speed,” Donoho coach Jay Jenkins said. “We just don’t see that. I hadn’t seen that all season from anybody. It was impressive. They are one impressive team.

“They were just the better team. We beat a couple teams better than us to get here and we just didn’t pull it off today.”

The Lady Falcons were outshot 9-2 in the first half, 16-8 in the game. They had allowed only 12 games goals this season.

West Morgan, meanwhile, kept Donoho scoring machine Lily Wiedmer quiet, sometimes marking her with as many as five and six defenders. She was credited with three shots, two on goal.

It was only the second time this season Wiedmer was held without a goal.

“It took the breath out of me every time I got the ball there was so many,” she said. “It was claustraphobic.”

The 57-goal senior had a goal disallowed on an offsides call after a corner kick when it was still 1-0. The Lady Falcons (17-2) had another corner kick in the final 1:20 of the half that was turned away. They had a few more chances in the second half.

“You could tell they watched film,” Jenkins said. “We couldn’t get the ball forward, particularly in the first half. We can get a goal from somebody else, we certainly have that skill set, but it takes applying some pressure and we just couldn’t get there.”